Hear an Australian olive-oil producer sing the song of a revolutionary type packaging (he's also a Latin Jazz recording artist); learn about newly blind Diabetes sufferers getting needed help to get back into the kitchen. Jonathan Gold goes to Wolfgang's Steakhouse. Plus, learn how to combine the right flavors for extraordinary eating, raise pigeons for food at home, and take a walk through old cookbooks to learn about our history.

FROM THIS EPISODE

Australian Jeremy Meltzer of YellingBo Olive Oil is importing olive oil in a special cask to keep it fresh for as long as you keep it. Chef AJ has been teaching the newly blind how to cook and Jonathan Gold recounts a mouthwatering tale about Wolfgang's Steakhouse. Authors Andrew Dornberg and Karen Page show us how to combine flavors with a chef's precision. We take a walk through Omnivore Books with owner Celia Sack, and David Kahn teaches us how to raise pigeons for food. Plus Laura Avery takes us to the farmers' market.

Celia Sack is the owner of Omnivore Books in San Francisco, which sells new and antiquarian cookbooks. The store features a selection of Victorian-era cookbooks, 19th century agricultural guides and first editions from the legends of the food world, including Julia Child and James Beard. Find images from some of the antiquarian cookbooks on our blog.

Ginger CordialIn a large wide-necked bottle place one and a half ounces of pulverized ginger; infuse this in a quart of cognac, well corked, for from two to three days; stir now and then; strain through a flannel, and add a syrup of one pound of sugar cleared and refined in one gill of water; filter again, cork well. The English often add to the pulverized ginger one pound of mashed black or white currants that secures a very delicious taste.

From The Flowing Bowl: What and When to Drink by William Schmidt, NY: 1892

Season birds inside and out. Place a celery sprig and the bird's giblets in each. Season, cover breasts with bacon slices, and truss birds. Wrap in grape leaves and tie with twine. (If the leaves are old and bitter, scald them in boiling water.) Lay in roasting pan and bake in slow oven (300 degrees F.); or roast on spit before open fire.

From The European Cookbook for American Homes, by Bob, Cora & Rose Brown, NY: 1936

Lemon Cream PuddingBeat the yolks of four eggs, with four tablespoons of sugar; add the juice and grated rind of one large lemon and two tablespoons of hot water. Simmer until it thickens, then remove from the fire, and stir in the whites of four eggs, beaten stiff with two tablespoons of sugar. Eat cold.

Abbie Jaye (aka Chef A.J.) is the Executive Vegan Pastry Chef at Santé La Brea. She recently taught "Healthy Cooking" at the Braille Institute. Most of her students lost their sight from Type II Diabetes, and her course taught them how to make healthy choices when preparing their own meals.

Grind flax seeds in a coffee grinder or blender. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl until fully incorporated. (Hands work very will for mixing.) Place batter between two Teflex sheets or parchment paper and roll out to about 1/4" thick. Cut into squares or use cookie cutters to cut into shapes. Dehydrate on a dehydrator screen for 8-12 hours at 115° until firm. Delicious served with fruit spread or almond butter!

David Kahn is Executive Director of Sustainable Habitats, a nonprofit which focuses on education of urban homesteading. He is also on the Board of Directors at Edendale Farm in Silverlake, a hands-on urban homesteading project. If you're interested in getting started, here's a great resource.

Music break: The Shadow of Your Smile by Billy Strange with the Mexican Brass

Yvonne Savio is the program manager for the UC Cooperative Extension's Master Gardener Volunteer Program, which has helped almost 90,000 low-income people with their gardens. If you're interested in the program, the deadline to receive an application is January 15.

Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold of the L.A. Weekly takes us to Wolfgang's Steakhouse by Wolfgang Zweiner in Beverly Hills. This steakhouse was inspired by New York's famous Peter Luger Steakhouse. According to Jonathan, the porterhouse is bliss, but skip the accoutrements.

Laura Avery visits with Chef C.C. from CleanPlateMeals.com, who shops weekly at the farmers' market. Right now she's making a winter chopped salad with radicchio, fresh cannelloni beans, sprouting broccoli and Clementine tangerine slices. (Recipe coming!) She also makes a roast chicken, rubbed with salt, pepper and paprika. She slices navel oranges thin and slides them under the skin of the chicken, then roasts the whole chicken with the orange wedges in the oven. The orange makes the chicken very sweet and moist. You'll find the recipe on our Good Food Blog.

Giver the beans a quick look to remove any extraneous matter. Rinse them before transferring into a large pot. Cover them with twice as much water as beans (2 to 1). Fill another saucepan halfway with water and a pinch of salt. Turn heat to high and allow water to boil.

In the first pot, bring beans to a boil, then lower heat to medium and cover.

Prepare radicchio by peeling off the outer leaf. Cut in half and in half again, then chop wedges into bite-size pieces.

To prepare the broccoli, remove 3/4 of the stalk and cut or break off the florets. By now your second pot of water should be boiling. Blanch the broccoli for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove florets and spread them out on a sheet pan or plate to cool evenly.

Check the beans after 45 minutes and test one to see if it is tender. If you not looking for al dente beans, they'll need to cook for another 15 minutes or so. (You may also need to add another 2 cups of water.)

After beans are cooked, cool for 15 miutes. Toss everything in a large bowl with salt, pepper, herbs if desired and 1-2 tablespoons of good olive oil.

Serve or store up to 4 days.

Winter is citrus season. Matthew Smith of Mudcreek Ranch in
Santa
Paula grows basketball sized pomelos, which are a cross between an
orange and a grapefruit. To eat, remove the large rind and the
membranes from the sections, as you would an orange. Or eat it like a
grapefruit by
slicing it down the middle. Mudcreek is also featuring the tiny
limequat, a full lime-flavored fruit the size of a golf ball, as well
as orange lemons, lemons that happen to be orange in color.

Jeremy Meltzer owns Yellingbo Olive Oil Company with his father, Howard, in the Yarra Valley of Southeast Australia. Aware that olive oil can spoil when it's exposed to air and light, the two Aussies created a unique way to store it. The Yellingbo cask uses an internal bladder, which collapses as the oil is being used. It's surrounded by a cardboard box to further seal it from air and light.

Jeremy has also recorded a CD, Moments, with producer David Foster. He's performed with Julio Iglesias and Gloria Estefan.

Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg are the authors of The Flavor Bible, a guide to hundreds of ingredients to inspire you in the kitchen. The book looks at how different flavors can fit together to create a new dish or simply jazz up leftovers. You can learn more about Karen and Andrew on their website.

The Flavor Bible was a recent choice for the Good Food Cookbook Club. (Join KCRW at the Angel level and receive five cookbooks a year.)